


Minds So Bold, Hearts So Clear

by orphan_account



Category: Shattered & Hollow - First Aid Kit (Song)
Genre: F/M, Meeting Again, Original Fiction, Rebellion, Rescue, Reunion, Science Fiction, Worldbuilding
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-27
Updated: 2016-05-27
Packaged: 2018-07-10 15:30:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,855
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6991282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It's been five years since Yen escaped their Block in the mafia-owned part of Elysium City on Mars, to join the offworld resistance, leaving her boyfriend Avery behind, with nothing but a promise to come back for him. Now she's returned, but so much time has passed, and they aren't the same people as when she left. Not to mention all the fire and blood that followed Yen home. Still, they've got to get out of here.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Minds So Bold, Hearts So Clear

**Author's Note:**

  * For [fleurlb](https://archiveofourown.org/users/fleurlb/gifts).



> Written for the song Shattered & Hollow, by First Aid Kit, with a little of their song Waitress Song thrown in.

Under a ruddy, smoke-filled artificial twilight, the domed city before them yet burned. Yen desperately needed to move on before a patrol tracked her down. She'd tarried this long for only one thing. 

Rather, one person, the man who stood before her. 

Avery's dark eyes fixed on her, stunned and wide, as Yen took off her helmet. The air in this dim old facility had a metallic tang; the filters were probably broken or clogged. She didn't have time to worry about it, they wouldn't be here long.

Stepping closer, Yen's heart ached to look at him. Ragged and thin, his dark hair in a loose tail, clothes washed-out and worn; a fraying, lumpy backpack slid off his shoulder to rest at his ankle. Everything he owned was probably in that bag.

Living as a near slave would do that.

That didn't matter, now. Life would be better soon enough for them both, if she could just get them out of here. 

Yen couldn't get over that he was standing in front of her though, after so long. Real, alive, and not pointing a weapon at her. Three very good things.

“Yen,” Avery said. “It's really you.”

She nodded, adjusted her gloves, trying to keep her excitement tamped down, though her heart fluttered wildly. Nothing could stop the ecstatic smile from pulling at her lips, though.

“You came. I wasn't sure if the message would get past the censors,” she said.

Yen had encoded it so heavily, so carefully, there had been the chance Avery wouldn't even recognize it was from her, if he got it at all. 

A message carrying a time, a place that only they held important. A reminder, a wish for time and circumstance to have not destroyed what they had had together. 

This place, an old rocket silo, stood like a strange tomb on the edge of the main dome of Elysium City; the offices and quartering here, abandoned to dust and entropy, were maintained only enough to keep up the seals on the outer plates, averting environmental problems for the rest of the city.

They stood in the upper deck, which had a viewing lounge overlooking the broad volcanic plain stretching endlessly outside the massive man-made habitat. Out in the red waste they could see little but the glaring fluorescent glow of the spaceport nearby, against the night sky. A familiar sight, unchanged from the last time they'd met.

The good memories they'd made here certainly outweighed the bad. Hopefully, she could add another good one, after so long.

“It did, and of course I came. I haven't seen your face in five years!” he said, and stepped forward. Yen was almost surprised that it didn't sting when he touched her cheek.

It cost her to resist the urge to pull Avery into an embrace right then and there, seizing the moment to bury her nose in his hair. She didn't know yet what his intentions were, though, or if he even wanted her closer.

“Most people would have given up by now,” Avery said, fondly, but not closing the distance.

“Weren't you the one who told me I was different? That I'd be the one who would make it out?”

He smiled at her, and if it held any bitterness Yen couldn't tell.

“And I stayed. People here needed me.”

"Maybe." Perhaps some of them did, but not like Yen had.

Avery drew his hand away, and shook his head.

“I remember how you looked at me so sad before you left. Like I'd ruined your plan, but lit another fire under you at the same time. All those stunts you pulled with your crew, leaving calling cards, making sure they knew it was you. After a while it seemed like you were calling out to me.” 

“Are you suggesting I did all of this simply to impress you?”

Which was ridiculous. Maybe she always had been a bit of a show-off, but she never had done anything that would interfere with her ultimate goal of freeing Avery. Which meant keeping heat off of him, ignoring him, leaving him alone no matter how broken it left her feeling. But not anymore.

“As the reports became more outlandish, I started to suspect you were trying to prove something. At least no one died when that satellite got hijacked and broadcast all those fascinating facts about Governor Ayler's sex life and spending habits.”

Admittedly, that ploy had had a limited effect. It was just one in a number of distractions, which allowed her people to hit their enemies harder where it hurt later. 

“Everything we did, was for people like you. The ones who had too much to lose to fight. All I had to lose was you.” 

“I'm sure your parents will be glad to hear that. If they're alive. I haven't been back to Block 52 in a couple of years. I'm having a hard time believing you really went this far just for me.”

“And I still do not believe you understand how rare a spirit you are.” Sweet and kind and loving, all despite the bad hand in life they'd been dealt.

Hope beyond hope, a light which filled in the cracks of her soul even when she thought herself lost beyond recovery. Avery didn't know his power, how shattered walking away from him had left Yen. Her parents, her family were like husks, beaten down, accepting their suffering, making no effort to change anything. She'd given up on them. But not Avery, never him.

“You're crazy. They're going to kill us both if they find us.”

“Fortunate for you, I can plan my way out of a sack.” Yen said, kicking a piece of debris. She hadn't come this far to fail now. 

“You've been planning for a long time. I don't suppose you have a place you can even go after this?” Avery asked, and he started pacing, his nerves clearly getting to him.

“It took some doing, but yes we do. Emil has made certain provisions.” Her boss had been generous, understanding why she had to bow out, once she had fulfilled her mission objectives.

“I see. You're on a first name basis now. What happened there?” Avery didn't try to disguise the crackle of his anger and the disdain in his voice. Not about the man who had created what some people called an opposing gang at best, and a terrorist at worst.

“You run with anyone long enough, you get to know them better. He isn't going to drag me back in. I swear it,” Yen said.

“No, because you'll go back on your own," he said, and she didn't like the suggestion behind his words.

“It's not like that, Avery. It's just not. We're going to start over somewhere else, just you and me. Someplace better.”

“Really? What are you going to do? Settle down some place quiet, change your name and become a waitress? I don't see it. If I could believe for a second that you were capable of standing still for more than five minutes, maybe. Don't look at me like that. There came a point where I knew neither of us would get exactly what we wanted.”

“That doesn't have to be true. Not now. Come on,” she said and reached out to him, offering her hand. 

“Yen.”

“Come with me.”

“And then what? Hide out in one of the rim settlements? Live hand to mouth on the run all our lives? That's why I stayed put in the first place. Even if I wasn't happy, I wasn't gonna die.”

“It's not going to be like that. I've got money, a place to go. We'll be fine.”

“Why? Why should I?”

“I don't want to do this alone anymore. Being without you, it almost broke me. I thought I'd be okay as long as you were safe. But it's not safe, it never was. You can't stay here, anyway, your entire block is on fire; the governor and his lieutenants, they're all dead. We're getting out.”

“Were you a part of it? The attack?” His eyes fixed Yen like nails.

“What do you think, Avery? I came back to end them and get you. We're getting out of here,” she said, unable to hide the desperation in her voice. Back then, all they'd talked about was getting out, making a life together somewhere else.

“I could have died in that explosion, too.”

“It was the only way.” Her crew took measures, took great care, but there was always the chance innocents would get caught up in it.

“That bastard told you it was the only way. You didn't want to think, you just wanted to do something that made you feel important. Well it wasn't worth this.” Avery's arms formed a tight line in front of him that matched his frown. His stance was so aggressive, for a moment Yen wanted to turn away and run. 

“We can argue about this later. Let us at least get away from Elysium,” she begged.

“You still think we can just walk away?”

“Everything related to your indenture is destroyed, no one on Mars is going to come after you.” She'd made sure of it.

“It's not about that and you know it, Yen.”

“I got out, and I got you out any way I had to. Sorry," she said, and waited for Avery to call her on it.

“Sorry for what? Helping blow up half the city to kill a few gangsters? How many other people do you think there were who got caught up in that? What if the upper levels are breached?”

“They aren't breached, or we'd be dead. Stop freaking out, we're getting out of here before the IPPF show up. I have a mini transport. We'll take the bullet train tunnel. If we tail one close, we'll have passage all the way to the space station. From there we can get to any dome, any station. You want to go to Jupiter, we can take the Gate. I suggest anywhere but here, though.”

Even if the tenuous order the local capos had maintained fell to shambles, the interplanetary coalition took swift and violent when it came to restoring order. 

“I guess I don't have any choice.” For the first time, his facade broke, his shoulders fell and Avery looked afraid. 

“Or maybe this is the first time you really have, Ave. Look, if you want, I'll drop you off at Phobos station with enough yuan to keep you going for a while and a number you can reach me through. You can go to the ends of the system if you want. Join the fucking circus, I don't care as long as you're free. I did what I said I'd do.” Yen reached out and cupped his chin, making him meet her gaze.

“Yeah. Yeah, you did,” he said, while tears slipped down to stain his vest.

"I'm so sorry. I just want to be with you again," Yen said.

Avery nodded, breathed deep, and finally took her hand, squeezing it firmly.

“Let's go.”


End file.
